PROUD GALLERIES   presents

The Blues Anthology
Exhibition: 13th November 2008 – 1st February 2009

Proud Camden presents The Blues Anthology, a photographic portrait of the icons whose music was to inform the sound of all popular music thereafter. Profiled through rare and iconic images by the very best Blues photographers, Proud Camden will expose the artists of a sound that had roots in the field hollers and work songs of slavery but evolved into music that was to bolster the African American as an individual irreversibly.

Bringing both the well and lesser know musicians of the era together, Proud Camden will present a complete cross section of the genre through work from a collaboration of world class photographers including Charlie Sawyer, Herb Snitzer, Joseph A Rosen, Ernest Withers, Ralph Fales and the acclaimed Terry Cryer.

Praised by Sir Paul McCartney and described by MOJO as “the dean of jazz and blues photographers”, Terry Cryer’s images are world renowned, giving enormous insight into this incredible time. Having grown up in the slums of Leeds, Cryer left school at 14 and learnt his trade in Egypt as a war office photographer – a position he gained by falsifying his previous credentials. After leaving this post in 1955 he gained fantastic recognition for the images he took around the jazz clubs of the UK, leading to personal friendships with many of the foremost musicians of the time.

A must for both blues enthusiasts and those new to field; this exhibition will showcase a part of musical history that remains as important today as it was the day of the first field holler.

Copyright © Ralph Fales

Background

Proud Galleries Group was launched in autumn 1998 by Alex Proud to bring affordable high quality photography to a mainstream market. Based upon a formula of exhibiting accessible shows around popular themes such as music, fashion, film and sport, Proud Galleries instantly took the photography industry by storm. A series of landmark shows including ‘Destroy: The Sex Pistols’, ‘Rankin’s Nudes’, ‘The Rock n Roll Years’, ‘Underexposed’, ‘Rebel Life: Bob Marley’, ‘The Official Bob Dylan Show’ and ‘The Libertines’ attracted blanket media coverage and full‐house, star‐studded opening nights. With up to 10,000 customers per show, the galleries soon became the most popular private photographic gallery in Europe. Proud Camden went on to house the At Proud Bar & Live Music Venue, coined ‘London’s best kept secret’ (Time Out Magazine) and hosted live performances by sought‐after bands like Dirty Pretty Things, Supergrass, Graham Coxon, Amy Winehouse and secret gigs by Liam Gallagher, official fashion shows for London fashion Weeks and VIP parties for Paramount Pictures, Sony, the MOBO awards and more.

Terry Cryer, Ralph Fales and Charles Sawyer